10/25/2020
"GOD LOVES YOU"
GEORGE J. JOHNSON
From the July 14, 1951 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
What mountains of fear have vanished as the truth, "God loves you," has dawned on receptive thought! What courage has come with the blessed thought, "God loves you." To those hungry seekers after Truth, what encouragement has come from the words of the Bible (I John 3:1, 2): "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. ... Beloved, now are we the sons of God." This statement is heard by all who attend the Sunday services in Churches of Christ, Scientist, throughout the world. What renewed efforts have been made with the dawning of the thought, "God loves you."
Christ Jesus' tender compassion came from above; it was the clear expression of the Father's love. He spent many solitary hours in prayer apart from his disciples, hours of consecrated communion with Truth and Love, that his love might conform to the divine. He was prepared for even the most unexpected opportunity to reflect the blessed spirit of our Father's love. Luke relates that when the ear of the servant of the high priest was cut off by the sword of an impetuous disciple attempting to avert his Master's arrest and trial, Christ Jesus exercised man's divinely bestowed ability to express the Father's love, and instantaneously healed him.
Wholeheartedly did Christ Jesus look to the great source of love for protection and guidance, as his words show: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me" (John 6:37). Standing before Pilate, our great Way-shower was unconcerned with the seeming power and authority of the office which Pilate represented. His thoughts were occupied with confidence in his Father's ability to supply him with angels, spiritual thoughts. Speaking of these messengers of God, Mary Baker Eddy says, "But we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 306). And she states further on the next page, "What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love!"
"God loves you." These words are spoken with great frequency by religious people the world over, but since Christ Jesus' time how infrequently have individuals been so conscious of God's love for man that they have been able to heal by spiritual means alone. That Mrs. Eddy understood the healing power inherent in the recognition of God's love for His creation is illustrated by the following account, taken from "Historical Sketches" by Clifford P. Smith: "In many instances, Mrs. Eddy healed persons who did not come to her as patients. Their condition attracted her compassionate and loving thought. For instance, while she lived at Lynn and was passing along one of Lynn's streets, she saw a man sitting on the sidewalk who was so deformed or crippled that his knees touched his chin. Going to him and leaning over so that her face was close to his, she said, 'God loves you,' and went on without waiting. Almost immediately the man arose and walked. A Christian Scientist, Mrs. Lucy Allen, saw this healing from her window. Then the man rushed to her house to inquire about the lady, the 'angel,' who had healed him."
Since the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy, proofs of God's great love are frequent experiences among those who devote all their time to the practice of Christian Science, as well as among other earnest students of this teaching. In working out problems through the understanding of God's great love for man, as it is revealed in Christian Science, one may prove that all who come into the atmosphere of right spiritual thoughts are blessed. The individual who dwells in the absolute confidence that Love alone governs man does not give indiscriminate or unsolicited treatment, but he knows that Love's angels are ever reaching the consciousness of men to heal them, even though at times they make no appeal for help. When another individual's prayers have carried him into an atmosphere of spiritually uplifted consciousness of Love's ever-presence, one may be instantaneously healed of seemingly deepset and firmly established diseases or other limiting false beliefs.
Several years ago a Christian Science practitioner received a telephone call from a salesman whom he had known for some time. The salesman asked for an appointment for the purpose of interesting the practitioner in something of which he believed him to be in need, and a time was arranged. After the telephone conversation the practitioner recalled that on other occasions when the salesman had been in his office he had arrived smoking a cigar and had continued to smoke. As he thought of this, the practitioner began at once to affirm God's ability and power to protect each individual in His universe. He reasoned that because of its infinitude the presence and power of divine Love fill all space at all times, regardless of material sense testimony. He acknowledged that in such an atmosphere there is no room whatever for another power. Silently and humbly he acknowledged the power, dominion, and glory of divine Love.
The salesman arrived, and, as before, he was smoking a cigar. At no time during the interview did the discussion touch on the subject of Christian Science. When the salesman left the office, the practitioner opened the windows and doors to air out the rooms and at once became absorbed in his work. Several weeks elapsed, and the practitioner again received a call from the salesman. This time there was no cigar in evidence. After a few moments his visitor said, "What did you do to me when I was here the last time?"
The practitioner, sensing what had happened to his friend, replied that he had not done anything, and then said, "What makes you ask such a question?"
The salesman then related that when he had left the practitioner's office after the previous visit his cigar began to taste rather bad, and he threw it away. After that, every time he tried to smoke he found it distasteful, and finally he gave up the attempt. At first he was disturbed, because he felt the practitioner had done something to interfere with his enjoyment of to***co, but soon he began to feel the benefit of the change. His appetite improved and also his disposition, and he stated that he was really glad that it had happened.
The practitioner explained that he had had no intention of causing his friend to experience any loss, but had used his understanding of Christian Science for his own protection and for the protection of every individual under God's government. Such a clear glimpse of God's love for man was caught by the salesman that he asked for more information about the teaching of Christian Science, and he has since received further proofs of God's ever-beneficent care.
To understand God as Love is to be conscious that all the real power in the universe is loving. To be conscious of God as Love is to be joyously awake to the might and majesty that holds the universe in His embrace, but is ever compassionately mindful of the least spiritual idea. With the tenderest compassion God always and in all circumstances helps the struggling heart that is ready to acknowledge the ability, power, and presence of divine Love. No matter what erroneous belief may oppose one's good endeavors, when it is confronted with the understanding that God is all the real power in the universe, it will surely fail. An understanding of omnipresent Love in the light of Christian Science reveals God, divine Love, as conscious of loveliness, but never aware of unloveliness. Man dwells in the glory of Love divine, in which there is no space for gloomy beliefs of either sickness or limitation.
The individual who lets his or her sense of love conform to the divine has the same source of unlimited power to help and heal as did the Way-shower. Through Christian Science he may demonstrate that God's ability to love is infinite and eternal; that man, created in the image of God, reflects His love and can express no other nature. For this is the man to whom God gave dominion. This is the man who is forever conscious that God loves him.
